After a stay of about a month in Switzerland we were ready for a brief tour of Europe. We had bought Eurail passes in India which allowed us 14 days’ unlimited travel over any of the European railways, including the high speed French Train a Grande Vitesse (TGVs), in 1 Class. Unlike today, in 1987 TGV used to run between very few stations. We had a service from Paris to Geneva and back. For other places one had to use reasonably fast inter-city express trains of various countries.

Our first target was Munich in Germany – a journey of around 7 hours. We did it in day-time. Interestingly for us the train passed through a place in Switzerland named Winterthur. I was reminded of my second brother who used to have a pen-friend in this town back in mid 1940s. His name was Kurt Senft. The concept of establishing friendships with persons living elsewhere, even abroad, through letters has apparently died down. With the advancement of information technology none probably ever writes letters, particularly hand-written ones. But in those days pen-friendship was promoted not only by parents but also by schools. And there used to be ads in the newspapers of individuals seeking pen-friends from distant towns and countries. My brother was very good at writing letters and he used to write long ones to Kurt. As luck would have it, a few years later, in 1952-53, he happened to be in Frankfurt when he seems to have nipped across to Winterthur to meet his pen-friend. He described to us his joyous meeting with Kurt in one of his interesting letters.

We reached Munich by late afternoon. It was a pretty big station and plumb in the middle of a huge foyer we came across a large assemblage of Indian-looking men and women. Eventually, it turned out that they were Sri Lankan Tamils who were there to seek refuge. Perhaps, the crackdown on LTTE Tamils had started in right earnest and they had fled from Sri Lanka to seek refuge in Germany. Surprisingly, as I write this, Munich has again been forced to accept large number of refugees (called migrants by Europeans), this time, however, from the Middle-East, especially from Syria with the ISIS occupying large parts of the country.

In Munich our lodgings had been fixed in a pension, a term not really heard very much these days. Used generally in the Continent of Europe, pensions are kind of guest houses run by a families in their respective residences, a structure that could be a heritage one or an ordinary one. These also provide breakfast and other meals, depending on the requisitions of the guests. They provide an alternative to hotels and other lodgings to cut costs. Our elderly landlady was a little sticky about payment of rent. She wanted the entire amount in advance. Perhaps she had been cheated earlier. Our booking was in a pension in an ordinary house and included breakfast which meant a morning cup of tea/coffee bread and butter with eggs. In England these are known as B&B (bread & breakfast) joints. In our later trips to Europe we found that the frugal breakfasts have yielded place to lavish spreads, almost in as good a scale as those of hotels.

Known in German as Munchen, Munich is the capital of the province of Bavaria and is the third biggest city of Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Located on the banks of River Isar it is a more than a millennium old city. Deriving its name from monks, Munich had been a centre of Counter-Reformation movements. It has been a centre of arts, culture and science since the 19th Century as well. Later, it became a place of prominence as the Nazi Party was founded here. There is much in the city for those who are interested in the city’s recent history. Around 80% of it was destroyed in the air attacks during World War II. Lots of tourists come to compare various parts of the city with the old photographs and figure out the changes. All that was not possible for us in our 48 hours stay besides the shoe-string that we were tied to.

It was a dark and murky evening when we set off for Marienplatz – a square that has been named after St. Mary. It is the main square in the city that has been in existence since the 12th Century. It is dominated by the New City Hall (neues Rathaus) and huge grounds in front of it has mostly tourist milling around to see and hear the musical tower clock. It was built between 1867 and 1908. Built in Gothic Revival Architectural Style it is a massive construction of around 10000 square metres with about 400 rooms. The basement has a restaurant and the ground floor has some business houses and tourist information Centre. The tower – all of its 85 metres – can be accessed by an elevator. The clock on the tower plays music at specific timings with what is known as Rathaus-Glockenspiel. At those times the concentration of tourists on the open spaces is to be seen to be believed. The grounds in front were used centuries beck to host sporting tournaments. A Marian Column, erected in 17th Century is located in the Centre. It was erected in commemoration of end of the Swedish occupation in the 17th Century.

Another beautiful structure in Marienplatz is the church that is known as Frauenkirche – the Cathedral of Our Dear Lady. It serves as the cathedral of Archdiocese of Munich. It is no less a landmark than the New City Hall. With its 99 metres tall twin towers, or more appropriately the spires, it is visible from practically all locations in Munich. It was built in 20 years from 1468 to 1488. Though a gothic structure, the towers are, however, not in the same style. Scarcity of funds did not allow Gothic embellishments and eventually they were capped by the two domes, modelled on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

A few miles away from where we were located is the Nymphenburg Palace. A palace built by the members of the House of Savoy who ruled over Bavaria, Nymphenburg Palace (palace of the nymphs) is so extensive that it is impossible to cover it in a day. The attractive baroque architecture along with extensive well-laid out gardens, parks and lakes with fountains, it is indeed kind of a paradise – fit indeed for nymphs. The Palace and several pavilions were designed by Italian architects over a few decades as and when additions were made to the original structure. There is so much to see especially of the affluent and opulent Duchy which never seems to have shrunk from displaying its wealth. It is a veritable feast for the eyes.

Munich is known for its museums, especially the Deutsches Museum which is reputed to be the world’s largest of science and technology. But we just didn’t have time as we had to leave for our next stop, Vienna.

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]]>https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/destinations-munich-1987/feed/0ProloyNew City HallAnother view of New City HallTwo of us at Nymphenburg PalaceFrauenkirsche - cathedral dedicated to St. MaryThe Palace groundsGothic facade of New Council HallBhopal Notes – 12 :: Modi’s jamhttps://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/bhopal-notes-12-modis-jam/
https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/bhopal-notes-12-modis-jam/#respondFri, 11 Sep 2015 10:54:55 +0000http://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/?p=721

My wife and I had a horrid time yesterday. Aiming to get to an office-furniture shop we came out on the Sultania Road and, lo and behold, there was a jam. We did some stop-and-crawl and by the time we got to the Royal Market tri-junction we knew it was impossible to get to the Peer Gate area. Apparently a rehearsal was on for the PM’s cavalcade next day and the VIP Road had been closed to traffic. Hence, all the peak time traffic had spilled on to the Sultania Road. Worse, the road leading up to Imami Gate was blocked and we had to turn left and attempted going to Bairagarh.

As we got on to the Sultania Road it was again a jam-like situation and later as we approached Lal Ghati everything came to a halt. While the down lane was stuck the up lane was crawling. Some enterprising drivers got on to the BRTS lanes and sped away. Never knew we had so many vehicles in this town. It was only 3 to 4 kilometres stretch and a few thousand vehicles were labouring up and down the two carriageways. Yes, it is the main artery that takes you to the newer areas from the airport but there are other roads as well which would have been suffering jams right at that time. My hunch to this effect was right as newspapers reported this morning.

Sitting cooped up in my compact vehicle I was wondering if only Modi-ji could be shown a video of the jam that was wrought in this town because of his mere four-hour visit for inaugurating the World Hindi Sammelan which is less of a Sammelan and more of a jamboree. Nine such Sammelans have already been held but they have done precious little for promotion of the Hindi language. Such conclaves can hardly promote a language. All that is, however, beside the point. The point is that crores of rupees are being spent in an effort that may not fructify but at the same time is inconveniencing hundreds and thousands of people who have nothing to do with it and may never be able to get anywhere near the highly sanitised venue. Thousand of litres petrol and diesel were burnt, no not for the conclave alone, but by the vehicles idling on the roads in jams fouling up the environment. Most of our half literate drivers do not know that one needs to switch off the engine if the halt is of more than a minute.

Talking of jams, recently, the newspapers had published a photograph of a jam on the Delhi-Gurgaon 6 to 8 lanes expressway. It was unbelievable. In such conditions one wonders as to why people should travel at all unless it is for an emergency. Apparently, barring the new metro there is no public transport and commuters rely on their personal vehicles. In the North, however, there is also a tendency to show off and using public transport is, kind of, infra dig. Most cities in India have too many personal four-wheelers and commuters are prone to getting stuck in jams. The governments all over have failed in making available decent and dependable public transport. With rising incomes cars have become both, a necessity and a luxury – luxury in the sense that numerous families now have multiple cars, sometime having no space for them at home. Residential areas are clogged by parked vehicles. In the area where I live parked Honda City cars on the streets along with a few Mercedes and an occasional BMW is a common sight.

Coming back to the jam that we got stuck in, it occurred to me that our traffic policemen are pretty prompt in blocking roads for the convenienceof VIPs. It somehow does not occur to them that they need to be sensitive about the conveniences of the commuting public as well. It never occurs to them when a road is blocked the on-coming commuters need to be advised at all preceding junctions about the blockage ahead to enable them to take alternative routes saving for them inconvenience, time and gas. But this is what the traffic people always slip on. Their primary aim is to enable unhindered supersonic ride for the VIPs through the roads rendered empty by the blocked traffic.

The last one hundred years were full of international strifes and wars during which two world wars were fought involving most of the countries of the world. Apart from them there were smaller regional wars or ethnic movements for independence. Barring Australia – a single country continent – no continent was spared the luxury of peace and tranquility. Humans are, after all, animals and most of them have the genes that promote them to dominate over others, either singly or collectively. International conflicts are a result of this undesirable inheritance among humans. This century in the new millennium most of the countries are commemorating wars that were won or lost during the last 100 years but, apparently, no lessons have been learnt. Each country is on a high alert, so to say.

Last year the world commemorated the Centenary of World War I that raged from 1914 to 1918 and was fought between the Central Powers, i.e. the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman Empires with Japan and the Allies, i.e. France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy and the US. It was a bitterly fought war which saw extreme carnage that ranked it amongst the deadliest of wars, sacrificing as many as 10 million military personnel and 7 million civilians. The extreme physical and mental distress of the military personnel during the War provoked now famous novelist, an ex-German soldier Eric Maria Remarque, to write “All Quiet on the Western Front” –a masterpiece. I got to read it almost 60 years ago and it left me wondering how men could think of going to war after having read it. It was compelling and gripping reading as it sensitively described the extreme human distress.

The War was also described by the famous commentator and science fiction writer HG Wells as “The war to end war” to which the then US President Woodrow Wilson added “to make the world safe for democracy”. After four long years of conflict among major powers that spread its adverse ramifications world over a peace treaty was negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference. The very reasons that gave rise to the huge conflict, however, persisted even after peace was negotiated that made Field Marshal Earl Wavell to comment “after war to end war” ”making peace to end peace”. Clearly, the reasons that led to the Great War – imperialism, mutually antagonistic alliances, militarism and nationalism – did in no way dissipate. The countries which fought the War started to re-build their respective armies in a bid to dominate others or to prevent others from dominating over them. A new peaceful, more equitable and just world order that was sought to be created through the good offices of a world body the “League of Nations” proved elusive. Gaining nothing, the Great War, however, proved to be a watershed in the sense that it extinguished as many as three authoritarian empires – hangover from a gone-by feudal era. Another emperor, The Czar of Russia, was toppled by the October Revolution in 1917 even as the War continued to rage in most parts of the world.

At the same time, it sowed seeds of future wars as the Russian Revolution put in power communist dictators Lenin and later Stalin. The economic downslide and territories lost in the War made the communists more assertive and aggressive. Likewise, the acute economic hardship following the War in Germany provoked extreme anger among the people. Unhappy with the outcome of the armistice, Germans were out looking for scapegoats – one of them being the Jews. In the prevailing atmosphere, the National Socialist Party or the Nazi Party found a fertile ground to prosper and eventually became the dominant party in the country led by Adolf Hitler. Megalomaniac Hitler not only dominated over the lives of his countrymen, his ambition was to rule over entire Europe, and even the world. He had built up a huge well-disciplined, well-equipped and trained army itching to undo the humiliation inflicted on Germany by the Peace Treaties. With him around, a war had become inevitable as he went about annexing one neighbouring country after another. Soon a war erupted between the Axis Powers – a tripartite alignment among dictators Germany, Italy and Japan who all wanted to satisfy their expansionist desires – and the Western Allies with Russia that had morphed into the Soviet Union after 1918 Revolution.

More deadly than World War I, the new war that later came to be known as World War II (1939-45) lasted all of six years and was instrumental in the deaths of 6o million people and 50 million civilians including the Jews who were gassed in German concentration camps and others charred to death in the nuclear attacks on Japan. Germany, the main protagonist of World War II, was occupied by the Allies, carving out “Zones”, one each for the Allied powers. So devastated was it that the US launched Marshall Plan for its revival. Japan came under American occupation – an utter humiliation for its proud Emperor. The Axis Powers lost all the territories they had annexed.

This is the 70th year after the end of World War II. It is also the 70th anniversary of the first occasion when nuclear bombs were used in real war situation. The bombs were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan though by then it had become clear that Japan had no way other than accepting defeat. The bombs were the product of new evolving destructive technology and the US decided to drop them over two cities of Japan (curiously, not over Germany) to demonstrate its power and the potential to dominate the world.

Like after World War I, the United Nations (UN) was established after peace was restored in 1945 replacing the ineffectual League of Nations with the primary objective to save the future generations from the “scourge of war” by promoting international peace and security. The UN, however, mostly failed to act in accordance with its charter. There have been numerous wars since it was established, the most long-lasting, perhaps, was an unique phenomenon, that of “Cold War” between the Western Bloc led by the US and the Eastern Bloc of USSR with its Warsaw Pact allies. Under it a state of unceasing hostilities between the two raged for around four decades till the Soviet Union disintegrated as a country in 1991. The Cold War precipitated two “hot” wars – the Korean and Viet Nam wars. There were other regional wars, largely in Asia and Africa, some of them with the sanction of the UN and others without it. If a much larger conflagration has not taken place during the last 70 years it is not so much because of the presence of the UN, ineffective as it is, but more because of the fear of nuclear holocaust assuring of massive destruction.

This year we, too, are commemorating the 50th year of the second war with Pakistan fought in 1965. This was one in which, according to objective appraisal, neither of the protagonists could score a clear win. Pakistan had, however, thought that Kashmir, with internal dissensions, had become ripe for plucking. But, it was sorely disappointed to find that it was the Kashmiris who helped the Indian forces to get at Pakistani infiltrators. Though troubled almost continuously by Pakistan-inspired proxy war by Pakistani regulars and irregulars with active assistance from Pakistan Army, Kashmir continues to be part of India despite four wars Pakistan waged to wrest it from India.

During the last seventy years since the end of World War II the world is again divided into groups and alliances era that are antagonistic to each other like in pre World War I era. Temperatures rise off and on but a major war has so far not broken out. The most serious threat to peace has, however, emerged from the Middle-East with the rise of the cruel and dreadful Islamic State which flaunts the intentions of dominating the non-Muslim world and eliminating all the “infidels”. Its success so far, thankfully, has been limited to Syria and parts of Iraq. Nonetheless millions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees running away from ISIS terror have swarmed into adjoining countries or are headed towards Europe and England.

With Social Darwinism at play in the jungle of international politics wars seem to be inevitable. Many countries have, therefore, armed themselves to the teeth with weapons of mass destruction. Hopefully, these deadly arms will deter a suicidal confrontation that could, if not checked in time, wipe off humans from the face of this earth.

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Photo: from the Internet

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]]>https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/09/06/wars-social-darwinism-at-play/feed/0ProloyA World War I dog-fight in progresshttps://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/701/
https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/701/#respondFri, 14 Aug 2015 07:12:23 +0000http://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/?p=701

Chapel Bridge

Chrch of St Leodegar from across the Chappel Bridge

A street of Lucerne

Lucerne Lake

Another bridge over Reuss River

St. Peter Church

Another view of the Lake

Decorated houses in the old town

Another Lucerne street

Another view of Lake Lucerne

St Peter chapel

The Rhine at Bael

A basel street

A Basel street

Another view of Rhine

Another morning (this time I was alone) I got on to a train for Lucerne, a famous town in central Switzerland by the side of a lake in the shadows of the Alps. It was around a three-hour ride that passed through Neuchatel, Biel and other towns. Neuchatel is an important station, being headquarters of the Canton of the same name and a centre of industries. Biel is where the world famous Rolex and Swatch brands of watches are manufactured. The train apparently has to snake up and along Jura mountains on the way and hence its speed slows down quite a bit. One can go right ahead from Lucerne to Milan in Italy in around four hour’s time. Once in Europe, one finds all the cities one had read and heard so much about are so easily accessible only if one had enough money and time.

The three-hour ride gave me very little time to explore the town as I had to take the last train leaving Lucerne by the evening for Geneva. Hence, it was a rushed trip. Lucerne, like all the Swiss cities and towns has a long history. Tracing its history to the days of Roman Empire, it flourished only around in middleages as a Catholic town and became a member of Swiss Confederacy in 1415. The Swiss confederacy, however, broke up during the Reformation and most cities became Protestant but Lucerne, remained Catholic and continues to remain so till today, The most important reason attributed to this oasis of Roman Catholicism surrounded by veritably a sea of Protestantism is the Leodegar Abbey around which the city grew.

As I got off the train I started walking towards the Lake which carries the same name as the town. Soon I came upon a tower-like octagonal structure that appeared to be huge not only in elevation but also in its girth. It turned out to be one end of the most famous Lucerne sights – the Kappellbruke or the Chappel Bridge. The structure earlier was not part of the bridge as it was erected before the latter came up. Though known in German language as a water tower it was never a water tower. It was, in fact a torture chamber for prisoners. It was closed to the public later but remained a part of the bridge complex. It is one of the most beautiful bridge complexes one can ever come across. Built in 1333 as part of Lucerne’s fortifications, it is made entirely of wood protected from inclement weather with paintings insides. I was so taken in by the sight

I stepped on to the bridge from the side of the so-called water tower walked across to the other side taking in the triangular paintings that supported the roof. There were small painted panels on the top of the walls where they joined the roof. While the bridge was built in the 14th Century the paintings date back to 17th Century. The Chappel Bridge was one of the three wooden bridges that Lucerne had – one of them was destroyed in a fire. This one, itself, was partially destroyed in a fire in 1993 and has, reportedly been restored

The bridge connects the newer portion of the city with the old one over the River Reuss which is the fourth longest river of Switzerland and runs through Lake Lucerne. The older part of Lucerne is dominated by church of St. Leodegar, a Burgundian bishop, its two spires being visible from across the Chappel Bridge. An abbey existed on the site of the church in the 8th Century and the structure was rebuilt in the 17th Century. The parish church of St Leodegar was founded in 1874. The city of Lucerne is said to have grown around this church as is evident from across the Chappel Bridge. I just did not have enough time to get inside the church and decided to miss the treasures inside it. Old churches are fascinating for their architecture, decoratives and various artifacts that they exhibit.

I walked around in the old town for a while and came across a number of old residential buildings, some even having the year of construction inscribed on them. Later I moved toward the Lake. It was a wonderfully bright day with blue skies interspersed by stray clouds and the Lake presented its bluest of waters. I hung around by the side of the Lake for some time enjoying its magnificence and then commenced my trudge back to the Railway station. On the way back I again took to the Chappel Bridge at the end of which I came upon the Chappel Square (Kapellplatz), named so after the nearby 18th Century St Peter Chappel with a fascinating mural on a portion of its front wall. I could not spare a moment to even peep inside as otherwise it would have been hell to pay

I also made another daylong trip to Basel – another more than three-hour ride from Geneva. It is the third largest city of Switzerlan with a population of arouns 200000 and is located on the banks of Rhine River in the North-Western part of Switzerland that borders Germany. For want of time I couldn’t cover much of the town except going across a bridge on the Rhine and then take a small round of the city. The place is known for its museums but there was hardly any time to visit any of them.

This year quite a few Hindu pilgrimages are scheduled. In fact, some have been gone through, some others are continuing and still others are yet to commence. An ancient religion as it is, it has a number of auspicious days as prescribed by the scriptures and the same have designated a number of holy places. Actually, the entire country is dotted with places that have some religious significance or the other. In some estimation there are more than 300 such sacred sites that span the country. Some are very important, so much so that a visit to them for the faithful is considered de rigueur to earn salvation. Others, however, may lack that compelling importance, considered holy only in the areas around. A pilgrim centre could be any holy place like the Himalayas, the temples located there or elsewhere, a holy congregation as prescribed by the mythology or a powerful deity or a tomb or a Samadhi of a holy or Godlike man.
Talking of pilgrimages one is reminded of two medieval tomes on the subject. One is Geoffrey Chauser’s “Canterbury Tales” that assumed cult status. It described the 11th Century pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in the Canterbury Cathedral and the other was the 16th Century tome of John Bunyan “Pilgrim’s Progress”, an allegorical narrative that never went out of print. One wonders whether pilgrimages like what Chaucer had in mind are undertaken even now in the modern world. Coming down to us from the Vedic times the tradition of Hindu pilgrimages seems to be nowhere near tapering off even in the 21st Century. If anything, it has acquired a greater hold on common man than ever before. Hundreds of thousands of people travel through the country from east to west and north to south or vice versa on pilgrimages using the modern means of travel like roads, railways airlines and even helicopters. Gone are the days when the pious and the staunch believers would trudge through the country that was largely untamed and wild, without fears of natural calamities or of predators lurking behind every bush. Motivated by sheer piety, unshakable faith and a strong desire to obtain release from the cycle of birth and death they would go over the difficult mountainous terrains, through verdant valleys or across broad rivers or fast-running hilly streams. The fear of losing life in the process was singularly absent though the near and dear ones would more often believe in the unlikelihood of their return.
Today, however, it is far more safe, convenient and trouble-free. One doesn’t have to undergo the privations of yore that the pilgrims had to suffer on the long and arduous journeys generally undertaken on foot to the temples or abode of a deity. Now it is well packaged and most of the needs, comforts and conveniences of the pilgrims are outsourced to private or public enterprises. Such is the surge in numbers of the devotees that their travels, halts, lodgings and boarding are booked in advance so much so that one does not have to do anything other than embarking on the pilgrimage. Highly commercialized, such facilitations have only increased the numbers of pilgrims exponentially over the last few decades. Numerous states that are lucky to have an important pilgrim centre in them also join in making arrangements by building up infrastructure like roads, hotels, lodges, camping sites, etc. for smooth and painless passage of pilgrims. Those dependent on the revenues earned through the large influx of pilgrims invite more and more of them to bolster their coffers. “Religious Tourism”, as it has come to be known, is precisely from where the problem of degradation of environment of such places consequent on massive visitations has cropped up – despite the strong empathy of Hinduism with Nature and all its elements.
A classic example is that of the state of Uttarakhand which suffered untold devastations in 2013 due to environmental degradation only to accommodate more and more pilgrims. Blessed as the state is with the four holy Hindu shrines, it could never have escaped the attention of pilgrims from all over the country. Earlier Uttarakhand was part of Uttar Pradesh and pilgrims’ traffic was on a low key. The newly created state, however, gave the subdued religious tourism a mighty heave. It became a big collective enterprise and virtually every section of the population got into the act. Roads were re-laid or newly-built on which would run hundreds of buses, SUVs and MUVs. Rest houses and hotels came up, shopping and eating joints were opened up all along the routes precariously perched on treacherous mountain slopes and dangerously close to the fast-running rivers, throwing to the winds all environmental norms.
The country’s rising middle classes too sent the tourist traffic soaring by the year so much so that on 16th June 2013, thousands were milling around at the state’s four shrines located at elevations of 10000 to 12000 ft in ecologically fragile narrow valleys. While the entire population of the state was 1 crore (1 billion), 2.5 crore (2.5 billion) tourists had travelled to it – much more than what was its carrying capacity.The holy town of Kedarnath with a population of fewer than 500 was hosting 17000 pilgrims. A disaster was in the making and, lo and behold, suddenly Nature struck a violent blow – a massive cloudburst that sent millions of cusecs of water gushing through the narrow valleys carrying along massive boulders down the steep mountain-slopes destroying or sweeping away everything that came in their way, from houses to cars to men, women, animals, roads, and slices of the weakened mountain sides. Thousands perished and many are still untraced and yet the ‘never-say-die’ politicians opened the state to pilgrim traffic in a year’s time despite the routes to the shrines remaining vulnerable to flash-floods, landslides and other natural calamities. Such is the lure of the lucre for politicians – and, of course, for votes – and piety of the faithful.
Deaths in pilgrim centres have become common. Only recently hundreds of thousands had collected on the banks of Godavari at Pushkarulu for bathing during an auspicious period that comes only once in 12 years and several died in a stampede that occurred as the restraints were dropped with the VIPs leaving the venue. Again, a few died in a landslide caused by heavy rains at Baltal in Kashmir – once a beautiful, quiet meadow below Zoji-la pass surrounded by green pine-clad mountains. It was commandeered for providing another route for the inflated traffic of tens of thosands of pilgrims to Amarnath cave where a trickle of frozen water miraculously assumes annually the shape of a phallus – the symbol of Mahadev. The township that is erected every year has played around with the surrounding hills making them weak and prone to slips – destroying its beauty as well as its ecology.
Likewise unrestrained influx of people in hundreds of thousands wreaks havoc on the ecology of several other pilgrim centres most prominent of which are Allahabad and Sabarimala. At Allahabad during Kumbh hundreds of thousands camp on the banks of the Holy Ganges and take ritualised baths in it polluting its surroundings and waters. The annual trek through the forests of Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) of Wayanad in Kerala to the Sabarimala hill shrine is devastating the famed forests. Besides, the River Pampa flowing by has become a sewer and people residing on its banks have to suffer its smelly and filthy waters.
As the pilgrim centres are generally located on ecologically sensitive hills and mountain, in forests or on banks of the holy rivers a time seems to have come to restrict the number of pilgrims travelling to them for the sake of saving them for posterity. Every site should have its scientifically determined “carrying capacity” permitting access to them above that limit should be prohibited by law reckoning it as harmful for all – the holy site, man and nature.

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Photo: from the Internet

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]]>https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/hindu-pilgrimages-are-destructive-of-environment/feed/0ProloyFlooded river in Uttarkhand during 2013 disasterIndia – 1.27 billion and countinghttps://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/india-1-27-billion-and-counting-2/
https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/india-1-27-billion-and-counting-2/#respondFri, 31 Jul 2015 07:55:53 +0000http://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/india-1-27-billion-and-counting-2/Proloybagchi's Weblog: Indian population We have hit the 1.27 billion mark. This only means that we are only less than three quarters short of 2 billion. In 2011 we were 1210 million and in less than four years we have added more than 60 million. It is now estimated that at…]]>

With so many humans already and more to come one wonders what the consequences will be for the country

We have hit the 1.27 billion mark. This only means that we are only less than three quarters short of 2 billion. In 2011 we were 1210 million and in less than four years we have added more than 60 million. It is now estimated that at this rate we will overtake the Chinese population by the middle of the next decade or thereabout.

It seems nothing has risen faster than our population – not our productivity, or our industrial base or even our agricultural output. Despite the general progress in agriculture we are still importing wheat, pulses and edible oils. Obviously, our efforts have not been enough to feed our own population and yet the numbers are relentlessly rising. One shudders to imagine the situation in the country when we become the most populous in the world. It would not be a moment to be proud of…

We have hit the 1.27 billion mark. This only means that we are only less than three quarters short of 2 billion. In 2011 we were 1210 million and in less than four years we have added more than 60 million. It is now estimated that at this rate we will overtake the Chinese population by the middle of the next decade or thereabout.

It seems nothing has risen faster than our population – not our productivity, or our industrial base or even our agricultural output. Despite the general progress in agriculture we are still importing wheat, pulses and edible oils. Obviously, our efforts have not been enough to feed our own population and yet the numbers are relentlessly rising. One shudders to imagine the situation in the country when we become the most populous in the world. It would not be a moment to be proud of. We should then hang our heads in shame for not being able to handle something which was well within our own control. We let slip opportunities away again and again.

My generation has been witness to the rise of our population in monstrous proportions. In the late 1940s we were 35 crore in undivided India. The first census in 1951 after independence clocked a figure of a little more than 36 crore. In “One Life is Not Enough” K Natwar Singh, a former Indian diplomat and politician, wrote about a meeting of Chou Enlai and Pandit Nehru in 1960 when Chou was reported to have told Nehru that if “your 400 million and our 600 million” worked together the face of Asia could be changed. True enough, the 1961 Census revealed a figure of little more than 430 million – registering a decadal increase of around 7 crore. Imagine if we had frozen the population at that level how well-off would we have been with the present level of development? Unfortunately, we could not even restrict the subsequent decadal rises at the same level. Last decade saw a rise of 24 crores and the one before that a rise of 16 crores. We used to be sarcastically told that the country adds population-wise an Australia every year. And, yet the government remained impervious and passive.

Even after partition we were over-populated and worse, our poverty was abject and wide-spread, more so in remote rural areas. It should have been a greater reason for the government to have launched more proactive campaigns for birth control. That, however, did not happen. Though India was the first country to announce a population policy as an integral component of the “First Five Year Plan” yet the measures taken were far too soft. The “Clinical approach” that was adopted entailed opening of family planning clinics in the hope that these would be made use of for acquiring knowledge and wherewithal to prevent the surging birth numbers. That, however, did not happen. More importantly, these clinics were few and far between in the rural areas where they were needed the most. No wonder, for want of any incentives to visit a family planning clinic the policy proved to be misconceived. The realization of its failure came only a decade later when a targeted approach was adopted.

In the early 1970s a law was enacted to facilitate medical termination of pregnancies and the Health & Family Planning minister coined a catchy slogan “Development is the best contraceptive”. However, despite the truism being mouthed neither development took place nor contraception was effectively induced. The population kept surging relentlessly. That is when a ham-handed approach by Sanjay Gandhi, an extra-constitutional authority, veritably killed whatever chances of success the weak campaign run by the government had. Taking advantage of the Emergency, he took the targeted approach to the extreme and illegally assigned targets for mobilization of people for sterilisation to teachers, policemen and sundry government officials who were directed to fulfill them or else face severe penalties. The scramble for achieving the assigned targets resulted in many indiscretions and on numerous occasions in utter high-handedness and thereby hangs another story. The net result was “family planning” became a dirty word so much so that not only the people hated it, even the succeeding government changed the name of the ministry supplanting “family welfare” for “family planning”. As talk of population control became politically unpopular and electorally dangerous no government wanted to touch it with a barge pole.

The governments that came later just drifted along and despite population clocks put up at many places we kept on adding numbers. The programme of controlling births was seemingly put on the back burner. No wonder the decadal growth rate hit a high of 24.80% in 1971 decelerating only marginally in 1981 to 24.66%. However, for reasons yet to be identified the growth rate has been slipping since then, albeit at snails’ pace, and has now in 2011 hit a low of 17.64%.

Yet the absolute numbers are frightening and pose a serious challenge for the government for coping with the needs and demands that will be generated by a burgeoning population with aspirations. Our large numbers have hitherto been described as “demographic dividend” but what kind of dividend they would be like has not been indicated. Unfortunately most of the growing numbers of people we have are not in the workforce for want of jobs or skills or both. The dividend would have accrued had there been enough numbers of jobs to absorb them. The country has always been falling short in job-creation to match the accretions in the job market.
We have to face up to this situation for a few more decades because the basic reasons, apart from other well-known ones, for rise in our numbers – birth-rate being higher than the death-rate and the fertility rate, though falling, is still higher than 2.1 – are not going to disappear in a jiffy. More importantly, the government has not been effectively tackling the illegal or legal migrations from Bangladesh and Nepal. Migrants of both these countries taken together contribute easily around 10% of our population. These apart, millions of Hindus from Pakistan have fled to this country. The partition apparently has been nullified with both Pakistan and Bangladesh, unlike India, hounding out their minorities, mostly Hindus.

One can see a tremendous social stress ahead in the areas of employment, infrastructure that is already stretched, fast depleting natural resources, inequitable income distribution and so on. All these have tremendous potential for causing social tensions resulting in inter-community and intra-community stresses disrupting the social fabric of the country adversely impacting its peace and harmony.

The alarming figure of 1.27 billion has appeared while the politicians are in the midst of a slugfest and are unlikely to react and take necessary measures. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister seems to be wisely toying with the idea of exporting skilled manpower to countries that might be in need of them. That will, however, depend on how quickly the Skills Development Mission is able to build up a substantial bank of human capital.

Another day out was perhaps the most interesting as it was into the Alps. My brother decided to take us to Jungfrau, German for maiden, one of the main peaks in the Bernese Alps. As is well-known, Alps are one of the great mountain ranges of Europe, stretching approximately 1100 kms across seven countries – from Austria and Slovenia in the east to Switzerland, Germany and France in the west and Italy and Monaco in the South. With 65% of its area covered by the Alps, Switzerland is one of the most Alpine of countries. Swiss Alps are generally divided into eastern and western Alps. The Bernese Alps, which are in the western part of Swiss Alps, have some of the highest mountains of the country and Jungfrau, also known as “Top of Europe”, is one of the main summits in it.

One morning eight of us, all of the family, piled into my brother’s two cars and hit the highway for Grindelwald in Bernese Oberland (highlands). We travelled for around two hours passing through some picturesque Swiss country including Interlaken and climbed on to Grindelwald where we caught a train to go further up to Kleine Scheidegg. That’s where we got into the Jungfraubahn which slowly ratcheted up the mountainside for about a couple of kilometres before it entered a long tunnel. Jungfraubahn is a cogwheel or rack railway which runs for nine kilometres between Kleine Scheidegg and Jungfraujoch climbing more than 1000 metres (more than 4000ft) within a very short distance. It is electrified and runs on a 1000mm gauge track and runs almost entirely within a tunnel built into the Eiger and Monch mountains after a steep climb from Kleine Scheidegg. This rail- road celebrated its centenary in 2012.

The train stopped inside the tunnel twice, on both occasions, to our surprise, the two stations offered views of the tall Alpine mountains through large glassed-up widows cut into the mountain-sides. The train and the tunnel are quite clearly prime examples of human ingenuity and unrelenting effort. The journey, though short, was an experience that was out of this world. As the train stopped at Jungfraujock we came out to get a stunning eye-level view of the Alps, with the Aletsch glacier sprawled out in front in all its glory with snow-capped mountains on its flanks. It looked like a river of snow and was a fascinating sight.
In 1987 Jungfrau used to be a small place with the Ice Palace as one of its limited attractions. There were hardly any Indians barring us in the crowd. Today, according to reports, there are shops selling Rolex watches and many eateries including Indian ones serving masala chai and spicy Indian stuff with a bonus of videos of Hindi film songs shot in the icy surroundings of the summit. Indian film industry and tourists have, seemingly, changed the tourism profile of the place.

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]]>https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/destinations-switzerland-1987-jungfrau/feed/0ProloyThe damily at GrindelwaldAt Klien Schleigegg stationView from tunnel station at EismeerAnother view from a tunnel stationThe family at JungfrauAletsch glacier from jungfrauAnother view of Aletsch glacierA peak seen from JungfrauThe fa,ily at JungfrauWith wife at JungfrauAnother view of Alps from JungfrauA view of Bernese OberlandIndia’s Scam of the yearhttps://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/indias-scam-of-the-year/
https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/indias-scam-of-the-year/#respondFri, 17 Jul 2015 07:17:14 +0000http://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/?p=675

This is one scam that the Hindu right wing party ruling in Delhi and in Bhopal, the capital of the central Indian province of Madhya Pradesh, will have to live through for a long time. It is so big that most parts of the country are involved in it and its reverberations have travelled far and wide. The media in the West have had occasion to report it in great detail. What is peculiar about the scam is that not only it is a multibillion- dollar scam and has been running for almost a decade some of its witnesses and accused are being systematically liquidated. So far 48 such men and women have either died suspicious unnatural deaths or have been bumped off. Even two deans of an university in a prominent town of the state, Jabalpur, investigating the matter died in quick succession one after the other – one was burnt, reportedly by a laser gun and the other was found dead in Delhi early one morning before. He was on his way to North-East of the country for inspection of another university.

The whole scam is about manipulations in examinations and recruitments by politicians, officials and businessmen of Madhya Pradesh. Known by its Hindi acronym “Vyapam”, the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examinations Board (MPPEB), a government body, was established 1982 to conduct examinations for recruitment to several inferior lower grade positions in state government and for entry into engineering, medical and other professional colleges in the state. Instead of being an establishment for conducting fair recruitments and examinations its officials, including politicians and the minister in charge, indulged in various malpractices to clear candidates for huge monetary considerations.
This cancer has been festering since mid 1990s. But actual action commenced in 2007 after an audit team came across large number of administrative and financial irregularities. Later as many as three whistle blowers had complained about massive irregularities and corruption in admissions for tests and then rigging up of the results. The scale of the malpractices came out in the open in 2013 when it was detected that several politicians, officials and gangs were involved in the scam. By June 2015 around 2000 people were arrested including the State’s education minister, several petty politicians, officials of Vyapam including its System Analyst, bureaucrats, middle men, students and parents. A First Information Report was also filed against the State Governor who survived arrest claiming immunity because of his constitutional post. However, his days as Governor seem to be numbered.

The modus operandi of the scam was varied and it included bribing officials and politicians, forging answer sheets, allowing impersonators to write the examinations and even manipulating the seating arrangements in the examination halls for facilitating impersonators to write the exams. For pre-medical tests (PMT) practicing doctors were engaged on payment of enormous sums to them and to fixers who maneuvered their admission at exams to write the answers. Another curious method was that the examinee would leave several questions unanswered which would eventually get written with the good offices of the officials, including the System Analyst of Vyapam. Among the tests rigged were the PMT 2008-13, Pre-PG test for postgraduate medical courses 2012, and recruitment exams for contract teachers, food inspectors, police constables and Ayurvedic medical officers

The entire thing blew up in the face of the local chief minister when a TV channel reporter died soon after interviewing the father of a girl whose body was found on the railway tracks two years ago. She too was an accused in the scam for having fraudulently cleared pre-medical tests (PMT) but was done away with. Soon, thereafter, another girl, once again an accused, was found dead and floating on a lake. A police constable too committed suicide by hanging himself after he was questioned by investigators. Recently another suspicious death of a dean of an university in another town in the state was reported from Delhi. His body was found in a hotel where he had checked in for the night. He was to leave for inspection of another university in the North-East of the country. He too was an investigator in the scam and was reported to have submitted around 200 reports to the investigating authorities.

The chief minister claims to be the whistleblower in this case as he appointed an investigating team in 2011. But there are three other whistleblowers that include Dr. Anand Rai, an Optholmologist, Ashish Chaturvedi, a social activist and Prashant Pande, an IT professional hired by the Special Task Force investigating the scam. They have had an uneasy life, living as they do under constant threats of attacks. One of the whistle-blowers claims to have evidence of involvement of the chief minister in the scam
There have been around 2000 arrests and 45 unexplained deaths of people connected with the scam generally in the north of the country. With so many suspicious deaths in quick succession the matter attracted national attentions. The TV news channels – English and vernacular – went to town reporting every facet of the scandal. The Indian National Congress, currently out of power in the State and at the Centre, is crying hoarse for the blood of the chief minister who is in his third five-year term and runs a Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state. It also has questioned Prime Minister Modi’s silence in the matter.

So far the Special Investigating Team appointed by the Special Task Force created by an order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court was investigating the mess. As the details of the scam continued to unfold, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition was filed in the Supreme Court which, after a hearing, ordered that the matter was serious enough for the Central Bureau of Investigations to investigate it. It has also agreed to the petitioners’ demand to monitor the investigations.

That is all well and good. But the scam has fanned the generally prevailing atmosphere of distrust against government institutions. No one knows how many fake and undeserving candidates were recruited over the years for entry into professional institutions or were appointed teachers. While the fake engineers, medical and dental professionals are practicing their professions either privately or in colleges and institutions or in private and government hospitals playing with the lives and wellbeing of the innocent persons, the fake, unqualified and undeserving teachers are playing with the future of school-going children. They are all misfits in their trade having hardly any credentials to practice the highly evolved professions. For a country, people of which suffer from malnutrition, ill-health and several kinds of diseases, such ignorant and unscrupulous professionals like medical doctors pose a threat to their lives. Likewise the undeserving and unqualified teachers are damaging the future of the indifferently tutored, ignorant and incompetent school pass-outs who might eventually be of no use to the country.

The only remedy would seem to be to hunt them down wherever they are after an extended investigation and strip them of their ill-gotten placements and appointments.

Long years ago, perhaps in mid 1970s, I happened to be in Bastar – a district that was till then not fully explored. It is inhabited by the members of the ancient Gond tribe. During that trip I had occasion to visit the Kutumsar cave known for its stalactites and stalagmites. Only 38 kilometres from the district headquarters of Jagdalpur, the caves are pretty long and are underground – about 30-odd metres below the ground level. It was quite forbidding as the caves had not till then been illuminated. But what I saw was amazing – parts of rocks streaming downwards and, likewise, others that were climbing up from the cave floor with accretion of minerals from water dripping down from the protrusions of the former. Taught to us in Geography lessons in the college, Kutumsar presented to me the first glimpse of stalactites and stalagmites – and that too deep within the bowels of the earth.

The Vallorbe caves are, however, overground in the Jura Mountains which is a sub-Alpine mountain range located north of Alps. It stands between the Rhone and the Rhine valleys forming watersheds for each. The mountain range extends from France to Switzerland and to parts of (south-western) Germany. In Switzerland it covers several cantons. The name Jura is derived from Celtic term for forests and it has lent its name to a “department” in France, a “canton” in Switzerland and to the Jurassic period of the geological timescale.

Situated about 100 kilometres away from Geneva, Vallorbe caves were discovered about fifty years ago and were opened for public viewing in 1970s. Later, they were also electrically illuminated making the insides more inviting in a constantly maintained temperature that is comfortable for the visitors. The caves have been the outcome of actions of River Orbe that originates in France and after entering Switzerland disappears underground only to come up on surface near Vallorbe. It was fascinating to see the stalactites and stalagmites in brilliant illumination. The authorities have done a wonderful job of providing viewing points and galleries for visitors. Similar provisions in Kutumsar are needed to make it more tourist-friendly.

We also had a day trip to Signal de Bougy, a park with some stunning views. It is supposed to be a great place for walks. Another day trip was to a place called Le Pont that is situated between two Swiss lakes and is supposed to be a starting point for hikers.

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]]>https://proloybagchi.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/destinations-switzerland-1987-vallorbe/feed/0ProloyA view from VALLORBEThe river at VallorbeStalactites in the caveSelf at VallorbeStalactites and stalagmites in the caveThe river gushing down at VallorbeAnother view of the insides of the caveDense forest on the river banksThe family at Vallorbe